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Russia is indoctrinating its youth with a nationalist, imperialist ideology.
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A student association says it is “the future elite of Russia.”
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Experts told BI that Russia’s system of patriotic education should ensure that Putinism survives even after the leader’s death.
For years, Russia The youth has been fed a hardline nationalist ideology as the Kremlin nurtures a new generation of Putin clones.
In July last year, Sergei Novikov, a senior Kremlin official, said said that Russia fought three wars: a war on the front lines in Ukraine, an economic war and an ideological war ‘for the minds of young people’.
The Russian government has taken major steps to win the battle for young minds by pumping money into so-called “patriotic education.”
The Kremlin is expected to release about 45.85 billion rubles (about $520 million) for “patriot projects” in 2024. Russian daily RBC reported last year.
The size of state-run youth groups has also increased dramatically since Russia’s massive invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The group “Movement of the First”, which goals to provide Russian children with the “education of a citizen and a patriot”, was launched in 2022 by Russian President Vladimir Putin. As of January this year, it had just under 5 million members, Russian officials have said this.
The head of the group said that about 40,000 offices had been opened across Russia by December 2023, according to the Russian state news agency TASS.
Ian Garner, a historian and analyst of Russian culture and war propaganda, believes such figures indicate that images of young Russians fleeing the country, smashing ballot boxes and publicly protesting are “ancient history.”
“Russia knows that that generation is probably never going to be super-ideological,” Garner said.
So instead, “Russia is pumping huge amounts of money and resources into creating a highly ideologized, highly nationalized younger generation, and has been doing so for a decade.”
Mikhail Komin, visiting professor at the European Council on Foreign Relations’ Wider Europe programme, told BI that new “ideological themes” have been introduced in Russian schools and universities will likely give rise to a generation of Russian youth in the next decade who “share conservative values” and are “much more anti-Western.”
‘Brotherhood of Academics’
One of the most conservative Russian student associations is the ‘Academic Brotherhood’.
The Academics Frat opposes Ukrainian statehood and sees Russia as a “third Rome” — the idea that the country, led by Moscow, is the successor to the former Roman capitals of Rome and Constantinople — and “a unique civilization, distinguished from others by its special spiritual and historical mission.”
“Russia,” the student association’s website states, “has no end.”
Nikita Izyumov, coordinator at the Academy, told BI that they “openly and explicitly promote imperial ideals in society.”
“We inherit the ancient imperial tradition of the first Rome and the new Rome, which accepted Christ,” he added.
The organization is sponsored by Western-sanctioned Russian billionaire Konstantin Malofeyev, owner of the nationalist media network Tsargrad.
The Brotherhood of Academicians uses a websitesocial media and a YouTube channel to attract potential candidates.
The student association said in January that there were about 1,000 members spread across 28 regions in Russia.
Izyumov said the academics are present at “almost every major university in Russia.”
The Kremlin, for its part, is “hesitant to cooperate directly with (Tsargrad and the Brotherhood),” Komin said. “It sees them as too radical.”
The various fraternities of Academics are largely similar in style, although some exhibit more extreme behavior than others.
The cell in Chelyabinsk, for example, is one of the more extreme variants. This cell publishes anti-immigrant news, memes that denigrate members of the LGBTQ+ community, and writes disparagingly about local feminists.
But the academics’ marginal status has meant that their main actions have largely consisted of “criticising particular artists or activists as ‘anti-Russian’ on social media and getting concerts cancelled,” David Lewis, professor of politics at the University of Exeter, told BI.
Preparing for fighting in Ukraine
“One of the tasks of academics is to train defenders of the fatherland,” Izymov said.
They learn drone piloting skills, weaving camouflage nets, to make trench candles, even behaviour master classes for students on how to make an army dry shower.
“A man in Russia has always been a warrior, it was so 1,000 years ago and it will be so 1,000 years from now,” Izyumov said. “If an academician decides to go to the front, we give him all the necessary support.”
The UK Ministry of Defence has confirmed that some Brotherhood members have already left for Ukraine to fight.
Creating the Next Generation of Putin Clones
According to the British Ministry of Defence, the existence of such a movement shows that “there is support in Russia for a more militant approach to both the war against Ukraine and the West.”
According to the ministry, this will likely have consequences for the “generational change that is likely to take place within the Russian administrative elite for the rest of this decade.”
The Academics organization says it will form “the future elite of Russia.”
But the government wants to “prevent the rise of a powerful, ultra-patriotic movement that could pose a threat to the regime in the future,” Lewis said.
“On the one hand, the Kremlin wants to see more of this kind of ‘patriotic’ civil society, but it also wants to make sure it remains under strict political control,” he added. It’s all part of “a much larger campaign to target the next generation of Russian youth.”
Although not very large, an organization like the Fraternity of the Academics offers the “illusion of freedom of choice,” according to Garner.
Young people can join the youth army, they can join a much smaller club like the Fraternity of the Academics, he continued. “But when you peel back the layers, they’re all basically spreading the same messages that are heavily loaded with this nationalistic, hateful ideology.”
Young people are feeling that if they want to have a successful career or participate in society, they “have no choice but to participate in some manifestation of these organizations,” Garner said.
It is an attempt to keep Putinism alive even after the leader is dead and buried. “Putin is not essential to the Putinist project,” he said.
Read the original article at Business insider